{"id":27918,"date":"2016-08-10T14:30:55","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T04:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=27918"},"modified":"2016-08-05T14:11:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T04:11:07","slug":"us-navy-railgun-sailors-dream-electric-cannons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/us-navy-railgun-sailors-dream-electric-cannons\/","title":{"rendered":"US Navy railgun: do sailors dream of electric cannons?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There\u2019s<\/span> renewed<\/span><\/a> interest<\/span><\/a> of late in the US Navy\u2019s<\/span> electromagnetic railgun<\/span><\/a>. Plans to perform at-sea weapon testing appear<\/span> to have been delayed<\/span><\/a> in favour of further research. So, while development will probably continue, there are still two major problems holding the railgun back. The first is meeting the weapon\u2019s massive power requirements at sea. The second is demonstrating that it\u2019ll be \u2018better\u2019 than existing weapons.<\/span><\/p>\n The railgun launches rounds using electromagnetic force rather than explosive propellant. The USN prototype<\/span> has 100MJ<\/span><\/a> of pulse-power capacitors and a 25MW powerplant for recharging. The capacitors release their stored charge into the railgun barrel in a hundredth of a second, accelerating the projectile to<\/span> about Mach 6<\/span><\/a>. The USN\u2019s goal is to fire<\/span> ten rounds per minute<\/span><\/a>, so the capacitors need to be recharged to fire every 6 seconds.<\/span><\/p>\n Few warships have the spare electrical capacity the weapon requires. The strongest candidate is the USN\u2019s<\/span> Zumwalt-class destroyer<\/span><\/a>, whose<\/span> 78MW integrated<\/span><\/a> power system can dynamically distribute power between propulsion and on-board systems. It should have<\/span> about 58MW of reserve power<\/span><\/a> while steaming at 20 knots. By comparison, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer<\/span> has only 7.5MW<\/span><\/a> for on-board systems.<\/span><\/p>\n The USN previously had several<\/span> nuclear-powered cruisers<\/span><\/a>, but the last were decommissioned in the 1990s. A new class of<\/span> nuclear-powered warship<\/span><\/a>s could host multiple railguns (or other power-hungry weapons). But before the USN commits the kind of money required, it has to prove that the weapon is worth the investment.<\/span><\/p>\n There are three main roles envisaged for the railgun. The first is<\/span> naval surface fire support<\/span><\/a>\u2014essentially artillery support for land operations. The Zumwalt\u2019s 155mm Advanced Gun System (AGS) is also optimised for this role, using the rocket-assisted<\/span> long-range land attack projectile<\/span><\/a> (LRLAP).<\/span><\/p>\n The LRLAP is almost ten times the cost of a railgun hypervelocity projectile (HVP), but doesn\u2019t match the railgun\u2019s expected range. The HVP can also be made compatible with both the AGS and the 5-inch guns on USN\u2019s cruisers and destroyers. Table 1 shows the estimated outcomes of this effort, although it doesn\u2019t take into account the terminal effect of the munitions.<\/span><\/p>\n Table 1: Comparison of possible naval gun combinations<\/b><\/p>\n